Coturnix from A Blog Around The Clock was kind enough to chime in and provide me a link to a post from last year outlining what a blog carnival is and what it should be (take a look). This is helpful...as the comments from last week revealed, many of us geo-bloggers are aware of carnivals but not quite sure what they are.

So far, we have agreed that the (still) unnamed geology carnival will be rotating (hosted on a different blog each issue), regular (about once a month, more-or-less), and, of course, providing the links to the posts.

We are still working on the 'well-defined' part of this equation. What should it be about? This is a tough question. Here's what I gathered from the comments in the original post last week:

we don't want to focus on a single discipline within earth sciences (e.g., seismology, geochronology, sedimentology, etc.); the best aspect of a blogging community is the breadth

but...we don't want to be completely unfocused either

A couple of ways to strike the perfect balance (that we thought of so far) are to have editions of the carnival focus on:

a geographic region -- in this way, bloggers can share their expertise and knowledge but we will have a 'theme' within which the (hopefully) numerous posts will fit

share stories and photos about field work or field trips -- many of us have chosen the path of geology as our scientific discipline because of field experiences

At this point, it seems there is a decent consensus to have our first edition of _________ to be about a geographic region. I think this is a great idea. I was also thinking that since plate tectonics is what ties everything together....it is our closest thing to a 'grand unifying theory'... that for our first edition we should choose a tectonic plate to blog about (maybe one of the bigger ones to start).

In this way, we can choose a region but, at the same time, have a geological foundation from which the individual posts can start.

Any thoughts?Does a 'plate' theme work for everybody? The host of each edition could be the one that gets to choose the plate (everybody has their favorite).

If everybody is on board with this, then I can go ahead and put together the first 'call for posts'. But, please don't hesitate to comment on potential shortcomings of this approach....I really want this to be a community decision.

One final, but very important issue: We need a name and a logo!!I don't know....maybe "Plates and Periods" .... or something.Let the brainstorming begin.

Dr. Lemming...I was thinking about the tectonic setting (e.g., island arcs) instead of a plate, but figured a plate would be much more inclusive to the potentially very broad posts.

The last thing we want is a small # of submissions because bloggers don't have time to research/write about trenches, continental arcs, cratons, transform margins, etc. Firstly, we all span disciplines, and secondly, we all have other jobs. I don't see this is a super-serious technical session requiring tons of research. But, like I said, i'm open. Should we start broad and focus after time?

"Is this for us or other people?" Both...maybe mostly for us at first, so we can see who all is out there.

"...we don't need to use languages that belong in the fossil record"HA! Good point.

As unifying as a tectonic plate would be as a topic guide, please spare a thought for us planetary geologists before setting anything in stone. So to speak.

There's cutting edge, outrageously interesting geology occurring on other planets and fascinating insights to be had from the bits and pieces that made up those worlds. So I'd posit an extra terrestrial "plate" would be needed to fully encompass our disciplines.

Okay...i was hoping to get a little more feedback in terms of level of participation (like from kim, yami, miguel?)....but, maybe i'll assume that we'll have some takers for the first edition of 'The Accretionary Wedge'.

I will put together a 'call for posts' tonight or tomorrow. Won't know how this works until we give it a shot, I guess.

The name "Accretionary Wedge" sounds fine to me - I was pulling a total blank on puns that aren't structure-specific.

As for the first topic... you know, I'm not sure that a specific plate would draw a lot of posts. I'm personally hesitant to post about a plate that I don't know in a lot of depth (except in response to something in the news) - I don't want to screw up and say something totally wrong. Maybe other people feel differently, though.

I would prefer topics that could go in unexpected directions, depending on people's interests. Geologic surprises (things that you wouldn't expect to find in a particular place)? What is it about X (where X could be deep marine sediments or desert landscapes or the core-mantle boundary or ring-shaped structures on Venus or whatever) that makes you want to study/know more about X? The worst field/lab/etc experience (because the worst experiences make the best stories)?